Pre-Service Early Childhood Educators' Self Efficacy Beliefs About Teaching Science:Influencing Factors

It is important for mentor teachers and teacher educators to purposefully support pre-service early childhood educators in their science teaching self-efficacy development by engaging them in meaningful science experiences,... [ view full abstract ]

It is important for mentor teachers and teacher educators to purposefully support pre-service early childhood educators in their science teaching self-efficacy development by engaging them in meaningful science experiences, creating supportive and nurturing environments, directing them to productive resources, modeling positive attitudes toward science, and demonstrating practical ways of planning and implementing science lessons. Based on that, the purpose of this study is to explore main influences of preservice early childhood teacher’s self-efficacy beliefs about teaching science. This is a qualitative comparative case study and two researchers interviewed and observed three early childhood education undergraduate students at a southeastern university. These students were seniors in the program and were randomly selected. The researchers developed 16 interview questions based on literature, which shows main influences on pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs such as their prior science experiences, interest with science, beliefs on their teaching science experiences. Nvivo 10 software was used to further analyze the data for a more detailed thematic analysis. The study results showed that pre-service early childhood teachers do not always feel confident in their own abilities to teach science to young children. Additionally, results showed that the participants’ teaching experiences (mentor teachers and practicum) and science class teachers have some positive and negative impacts on their self-efficacy beliefs. The three pre-service ECE teachers did not see themselves as knowledgeable or proficient in science content, nor did they see themselves as engaging in the practices of science in their professional or everyday life. Recognizing everyday science builds science knowledge and could positively influence their own beliefs about their abilities to teach science. Findings showed agreement with this study’s data and other literature which focused self-efficacy beliefs about teaching science. In addition, findings of study extend the current understanding of preservice early childhood teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about teaching science.